Smart card connectors commonly include a molded plastic insulative support having an upper face, at least one row of contacts mounted on the support and having pad-engaging ends projecting above the support, and a sheet metal cover that lies over the support to hold down a card. Improvements in such a connector which facilitated detection of a card being inserted, which facilitated mounting of the cover on the support, which facilitated fastening of the connector to a circuit board, and which prevented upside-down insertion of an SD type smart card far enough to damage a contact, would be of value. It also would be desirable if a dual connector were provided with first and second connector parts for receiving cards of different cross-sectional shapes, where the dual connector was of low cost design and occupied a minimum of circuit board space.
One type of smart card is a high capacity SD (secured digital) card which has a thickness of 2.1 mm and nine recessed contact pads. MMC cards have similarly placed seven contact pads but have a thickness of 1.4 mm. MICROSIM cards are slightly smaller in size than MMC cards, and have contact pads differently spaced.